


Very Alien

by RavenclawProngs



Series: Enticing Contrast [2]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Denial, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2016-10-27
Packaged: 2018-08-27 09:11:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8395885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenclawProngs/pseuds/RavenclawProngs
Summary: There's no reason to stare at Bunny.  Really.  Just because his eyes are very green and he smells like fresh leaves and his fur is warm and--Maybe Jack is in trouble.





	

There was really no need to stare at Bunny.  Honestly, he was magic, it made sense that he didn’t look right.  And yet…

 

The thing was, Bunny didn’t really look like—well, like a _bunny_.  Leaving aside that rabbits didn’t walk on their hind legs, even when he sat on his haunches he didn’t really have the right shape.  He wasn’t a rabbit-shaped creature that had learned to walk on two legs—his spine was too straight, his feet weren’t furred correctly, his arms were _completely_ wrong and his musculature was not set up for an exclusively (or even primarily) quadrupedal being.  Even his head didn’t look right.  Sure, he had an herbivore’s flat front teeth and grinding molars (thanks Tooth), but no strictly plant-eating creature Jack had ever heard of had forward-facing eyes.  Predator’s eyes.  And every time he looked at Jack, he found himself caught again.  Something that green and full of life shouldn’t be that sharp.

 

Bunny’s reactions weren’t those of a prey animal, either.  He didn’t shy from a fight, even if it threatened to get physical, and he was completely willing to stare down an opponent.  His ears were constantly reacting to the sounds around him, but it was with a hunter’s observance, not the wariness of a wild animal.

 

Bunny didn’t talk about his past much, but what little he did let slip made it pretty clear that being a warrior was a pretty common occupation for his people.  Which was also confusing.  What _was_ Bunny?

 

“A Pooka.”

 

Jack jolted from his reverie.  “Huh?”

 

North was giving him an amused look.  “You asked what is Bunny.  He is Pooka, he’s an alien.”

 

Jack blinked.  “Oh.  I said that out loud?”

 

North laughed and clapped Jack on the shoulder.  “Talking to oneself, is hard habit to break, _да_?”

 

Jack chuckled ruefully.  “Yeah, guess so.”

 

While that clarified why Bunny didn’t look like a rabbit, or even a kangaroo as Jack liked to tease, it didn’t explain why Jack couldn’t stop _looking_ at him.  So he was an alien, so what?

 

So he had nice broad shoulders because his people ( _Pookas_ ) apparently did, why should that make Jack’s hands clench around his staff?

 

His eyes’ being so green was no reason to get in a spat with Bunny just so he’d give Jack his undivided attention.  There were meadows just as green, after all.

 

Jack had never had an allergy to fur (which was good, since for centuries the only creatures that would pay attention to him were dumb animals), there was no reason that brushing against Bunny’s fur should make his skin tingle.  Maybe space-rabbit fur was different?  But no one else seemed to have that problem.  North pulled people into a bear-hug as often as he could get away with it, Bunny included.  Tooth didn’t seem to understand personal space when it came to mouths and Bunny’s was just as surrounded by fur as any other part of him.  Sandy… well, maybe being made of sand meant things didn’t really affect him the same way.  Still.

 

Maybe it had to do with the smell?  Not that Bunny _smelled,_ or at least, not that he smelled _bad_.  But he definitely had a scent, and after three hundred years of being most active in the winter, it wasn’t one Jack was used to.  Bunny smelled—green.  Fresh, like leaves and flowers and newly-turned earth, with a hint of something woodsy and dark hidden underneath.  Jack liked to be next to Bunny during group hugs so he could try and puzzle it out, but it was hard to place and Bunny always squirmed away before he could get a clearer picture, complaining about being squashed against an ice cube.

 

Bunny was fairly quiet when left to his own devices.  He rarely started a conversation, though he usually seemed happy enough to share one.  That didn’t explain Jack’s need to badger him into an argument until Bunny’s voice lowered and he got all growly.  Jack had stopped having cause to shiver since falling into the lake, but someone had forgotten to tell his spine that.

 

It just didn’t make any _sense_.

 

Jack looked at the frozen pond just under his feet and tapped his staff against the surface, pulling his frost in for once and letting the ice clear up.  He took a good long look at his distorted reflection.  For a frost spirit, he seemed to be doing an awful lot of swimming in African rivers lately.

 

He sighed and looked up into the wind before flinging himself skyward.  Maybe he should just forget it.  It’d been so long since he’d even had _friends_ that asking for more just seemed… greedy.

 

That didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy bugging his favorite Guardian though.

 

“Wind!  Take me to the Warren!”

**Author's Note:**

> This wound up being much shorter than I intended. Jack just didn't want to cooperate and think Bunny *should* look really unattractive instead of merely alien. Oh well.


End file.
